Latest News - Page 921

Elden Ring has a new patch which provides, among other things, ray tracing support for the ridiculously popular RPG across the PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X.

Patch version 1.09 introduces ray tracing that can be switched on in Settings. For PC gamers, it's under Graphics, where you'll find a Ray Tracing Quality setting, and on consoles, it's under Game Options.

Simply head over there and switch it on to see the effect on the visuals, but as ever with ray tracing, you will take a frame rate hit for the additional bells and whistles. Particularly as you don't have DLSS (or FSR) on PC to offset it here, either.

Windows users who like to grab optional preview updates will be glad to hear that Microsoft is ushering in a change to the timing of their release that'll make for a better experience.

Specifically, this change to deployment timeframes for Windows 11 and Windows 10 patching pertains to 'optional non-security preview' updates.

Starting from April 2023, the new model will have one optional update arriving in the fourth week of the month, instead of the existing situation where what are known as 'C' and 'D' releases are rolled out in the third and fourth weeks of the month.

WhatsApp has announced a brand new Windows app that it says will be a big improvement over the one that people have had to make do with until today.

The new app was announced via a blog post on the WhatsApp and Meta blogs, while Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also posted about it on his Instagram channel.

The big news is that this is a native Windows app which means that it is built to load faster than the previous Electron monstrosity. That also brings with it a few other improvements, not least an interface that will be familiar because it more closely mimics the look and feel of the WhatsApp mobile apps on iPhone and Android.

After more than a few leaks in recent weeks, the Nothing Ear (2) wireless earbuds are now here, and they promise a lot. The earbuds claim improvements almost across the board when compared to the previous Ear (1) offering. All while maintaining the same price.

Externally, you'd be hard-pressed to tell which of the earbuds is which from a distance. The Nothing Ear (2) look very similar to the Ear (1) complete with the black and white look that also includes a transparent element that somehow makes the earbuds look classy and cheap at the same time. Personal taste will likely dictate what you see.

In terms of features, there are some tangible improvements. Nothing has added the ability to connect to two devices at once for easy switching, so those who want to connect to their computer and phone can do so quickly. There's also a new ear fit test to make sure you're getting the perfect seal.

Scientists have discovered an asteroid that's anticipated to pass closer than the Moon is to Earth in the next few days.

A new article published in EarthSky details a member of the Apollo family of asteroids, 2023 DZ2, which researchers estimate to be approximately 210 feet in diameter. The article states that the asteroid doesn't pose any threat to Earth and will make its closest approach to our planet at around 3:51 p.m. EDT on March 25. The space rock was discovered by astronomers at the observatory La Palma, in the Canary Islands, Spain, on February 2023.

As previously stated, astronomers expect the 210-foot-wide asteroid, which is approximately the of an average skyscraper, will pass between Earth and the Moon, which, given the asteroid's close proximity, enables amateur astronomers to catch a viewing. Notably, 2023 DZ2 is classified as a Near Earth Object (NEO) and orbits the Sun every 3.16 years. In the past, the large asteroid was thought to pose a risk to Earth, with estimations putting Earth on a collision course with it on March 27, 2026. However, after further analysis, officials removed 2023 DZ2 from the Sentry Risk Table.

NASA's Mars helicopter has proved time and time again that flight on the Red Planet is possible, and now Ingenuity is closing in on a historic milestone.

Ingenuity landed on Mars with its companion rover, Perseverance, in February 2021, and just two months later, in April, the small aircraft became the very first machine to achieve powered flight in the skies of a planet that isn't Earth. NASA engineers sent Ingenuity to Mars as a technology demonstration. The objective was to see if an aircraft was able to fly on Mars, a planet that has an atmosphere very different from Earth. Notably, Mars' atmosphere is 1% as thick as Earth's, meaning to achieve flight, the aircraft would have to spin its blades much faster than a typical helicopter.

The problem of a thin atmosphere was anticipated by NASA engineers, and the appropriate design changes were made. Ingenuity features special counter-rotating blades that spin at approximately 2,500 revolutions per minute (RPM). For context, a typical helicopter spins its blade at just 400 to 500 RPM to maintain flight. This difference between RPM illustrates the severe difference in flight on Earth and flight on Mars.

VR is one of those things where immersion doesn't end with putting on a headset. Touch controllers, room-scale tracking, tactile interactivity, and software and games tap into all that.

With the Meta Quest 2 and the recently released PlayStation VR2, there's a definite market for what VR brings to immersive digital spaces, and it's one of those things where after you try it, you're likely to become a convert.

This makes the debut of the Omni One, which is now shipping units to its investor community with a planned launch slated for later this year, a very cool proposition. It's an all-in-one VR solution with an omnidirectional treadmill that allows complete movement in VR games and software.

It's been less than a day since we got official word from NVIDIA that it's launching six new desktop and laptop workstation GPUs built on the new Ada Lovelace architecture.

The most notable is the new desktop NVIDIA RTX 4000 Small Form Factor (SFF) Ada Generation GPU that features a small 2-slot design, 6144 CUDA Cores, 20GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus, and a power requirement of only 70W.

Compared to the NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Generation GPU, though, the RTX 4000 is a sizable step-down, with the more extensive (and more expensive) card offering workstation power that just about fully taps into Ada's capabilities, with 18176 CUDA Cores, 48 GB of GDDR6X memory, on a 384-bit bus and a 300W power requirement.

With the success of The Last of Us TV show on HBO, interest is undoubtedly riding high for the upcoming March 28 release of The Last of Us Part I on PC. A remake for the PlayStation classic that's set to arrive with a suite of visual updates and options that will take advantage of modern graphics cards.

And on that note, in addition to offering The Last of Us Part I as part of a new Radeon bundle, AMD's new Radeon Adrenalin Edition 23.3.2 driver release provides full support for the game, alongside support for another excellent remake, the recently released Resident Evil 4 Remake from Capcom.

The update, which supports all current Radeon GPUs - including the new Radeon RX 7000 Series - has a few more notable additions. Software-wise, there's support for more Vulkan extensions, a popular API used in titles like DOOM Eternal and Red Dead Redemption II.

Q4 2022 could have been a better time for PC monitor shipments, with a new report by IDC outlining that shipments contracted by over 18% year over year. The 30.5 million units this represents is the lowest fourth quarter result since the firm started tracking the PC monitor market in 2008.

It's a trend that we've seen quite a bit of late, with reports across the entire range of PC hardware reporting a downturn during the tail end of 2022, with a mix of the rapid expansion during the pandemic and the current economic downturn seen as the reason. With so many people setting up a hybrid work-from-home environment, people aren't buying as many new PC monitors as they used to.

The Q4 2022 results led to an annual decline of 5.9% for the entire year, though IDC notes that the Q4 results align with its forecast of a 16.2% decline in shipments. Which at least means that it wasn't a surprise - so that's a plus. Sort of.

CD Projekt RED and NVIDIA announced a new path-tracing powered visual mode for Cyberpunk 2077 called RT: Overdrive during last year's big GeForce RTX 40 Series reveal. With tech like NVIDIA RTX Direct Illumination (RTXDI) for all in-game objects ranging from neon lights to car headlights and full-resolution reflections, it was initially showcased alongside NVIDIA's new DLSS 3 rendering with Frame Generation.

With DLSS 3 now an option in the game, we've got word via the GDC 2023 presentation "Cyberpunk 2077' RT: Overdrive - Bringing Path Tracing into the Night City (Presented by NVIDIA)" that the new RT: Overdrive mode is set to arrive in Night City as part of Update 1.62 coming on April 11.

No doubt the mode, like the fully path-traced Portal with RTX, will be super demanding on even the most powerful GPUs - including the GeForce RTX 4090. Odds are DLSS 3 will be required for a playable frame rate above 60fps at both 1440p and 4K, though it will be interesting to see if the mode is togglable on non-GeForce RTX 40 Series GPUs. NVIDIA's Portal with RTX remaster has no restrictions on what hardware you need, even though it is limited to the top end of the GPU spectrum.

A new WhatsApp update adds a valuable feature that will give group administrators new powers to control who can, and cannot, join up.

Group chats have become a huge deal for WhatsApp and they can be used for all kinds of things. Some of those group chats sometimes need tighter control over who can join them, and until now even administrators didn't have the powers that they needed.

Now, WhatsApp has been updated to give group administrators more options, with Meta announcing the news via a blog post.

Multiple PC users are reporting that their NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti video cards malfunctioned while playing the recent Diablo IV early access beta test.

While Diablo IV's lenient PC spec requirements indicate a well-optimized game, some users share troubling reports of their expensive graphics cards failing during gameplay. There have been multiple reports of NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti GPUs failing while playing the Diablo IV early access beta, with symptoms like GPU fan usage skyrocketing to 100% following an outright hardware shut down.

The amount of posts on Blizzard's Diablo IV forums indicate the problem may be serious. One post entitled Diablo 4 Bricked my GIGABYTE 3080 Ti is the top-viewed forum post. The official Diablo Reddit also has lots of comments lamenting GPUs lost due to this glitch and relating the issue to what happened with EVGA's graphics cards with New World. The bricking issue seems to affect GIGABYTE RTX 3080 Ti graphics cards the most. Users are at odds with a possible cause, but the general consensus seems to be pre-existing issues from faulty hardware.

Valve has officially announced Counter-Strike 2, a sequel to CS:GO built on Source 2.

It's happening! Counter-Strike 2 is set to release Summer 2023 as a free upgrade to Counter-Strike GO, Valve today announced. Counter-Strike 2 will be fully optimized and overhauled in Valve's upgraded Source 2 engine, complete with major updates to lighting, physics, and other effects. A bunch of maps have been rebuilt from the ground up to really make the new engine shine.

In essence, Counter-Strike 2 is more like a big upgrade similar to Overwatch 2, or maybe the new Fortnite that's running on Unreal Engine 5. So much has been changed--UI, lighting, graphical fidelity, smoke grenades got a big adjustment, and even Half-Life Alyx's incredible bottle fluid effects are included.

Intel's Arc graphics cards might be in serious trouble, or at least that's what one well-known leaker has heard from sources on the grapevine.

That would be Moore's Law is Dead (MLID) on YouTube, who has spoken to various contacts purportedly in the know regarding all things Intel, and aired some rumors that are troubling, to say the least.

If MLID's sources are right, it's entirely possible that we won't see an Arc Alchemist refresh this year. Revamped Alchemist graphics cards were rumored to be set to debut late in 2023, but apparently, this is no longer happening. What we might still get, though, are some tweaked spins on Alchemist cards with maybe clocks bumped up a bit, but nothing like a full revamp.

Windows 11 has had something of a torrid relationship with the Bing AI - first, the chatbot was in the taskbar, then it was gone (although we then found out it was actually put into a 'rotation'), but now, Bing is back on the bar, you'll either be pleased or perhaps annoyed to hear.

Either way, the implementation of the Bing AI remains the same fudged addition to the taskbar that we saw initially in Windows 11, which is a sad state of affairs.

That means it remains in the form of an icon to click in the search box, linking through to Bing in the Edge browser, as opposed to an actual integration of the chatbot into the taskbar, so you could carry out queries right there on the desktop.

Microsoft has added another string to the bow of its Bing AI, allowing people to ask the chatbot to produce a piece of art, or indeed to provide inspiration for interior design, and many other image-related possibilities.

AI drawing art is nothing new, of course, and it was inevitable that at some stage, Microsoft would add this capability to the Bing chatbot.

It comes courtesy of the DALL∙E image generation tool from OpenAI (the developer of ChatGPT), with Microsoft noting that Bing is using an advanced version of this model.

An energy giant that manages the nuclear power plant in the city of Monticello, Minnesota, has confirmed that 400,000 gallons of contaminated water has leaked out of its nuclear power plant.

Reports indicate the leak was initially detected by the Monticello nuclear power plant four months ago, in November 2022, and was reported immediately to state and federal regulators. However, it wasn't until last week that the public was made aware of the situation. Xcel Energy, the energy giant that runs the Monticello nuclear power plant, issued a press release where it states that it took "swift action" to contain the leak to the plant site and that the contaminated water is "fully contained on-site".

Notably, the press release states the leak poses no health or safety risk to the local community or environment and hasn't been detected beyond the facility itself, which, according to Xcel Energy, means it hasn't been detected in any local drinking water. As for the water, Xcel Energy confirmed that the 400,000 gallons contained tritium, a naturally occurring form of hydrogen that emits a weak form of radiation. Tritium can't travel long distances in the air or penetrate the skin, according to officials with the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

Google Drive is famous among Android users as a trustworthy backup storage option. Often, Android users store their essential data and media files on Google Drive over the internet to restore them when demanded.

Google Drive also lets users save their WhatsApp chat history and restore it seamlessly in no time. But what if your Android phone is lost, or you want it on your new iPhone? iOS and Android have different operating systems, and you cannot directly transfer your WhatsApp backup to iPhones without using safe and secure third-party software.

Before you go elsewhere, iToolab WatsGo can be your easiest and perfect pick to restore WhatsApp backup on iOS and Android devices. So stay tuned to restore WhatsApp backup from Google Drive to Android and iPhone devices with simple solutions and be in for exclusive features and usage process of iToolab WatsGo to get the job done more simply.

Northern California skywatchers were shocked to see a group of fiery objects enter Earth's atmosphere and illuminate the night sky, but an explanation has been put forward about their origin.

Residents in the area, and as spotted by Aaron, who took to his personal Twitter account with the above video, saw the group of objects on Friday night when they began burning across the night sky. Aaron, like many of the residents that saw the event, was confused about its origin, suggesting that it could be a meteorite breaking up throughout its entry, aliens, or even China. None of these suggestions ended up being accurate, but they are warranted considering the slew of UFO detection in North American airspace over the past several weeks.

As you can probably imagine, between the time of the sighting and the explanation being posted online there was rampant speculation about the origin of the objects. Some individuals wrote that it was a meteor shower, while others suggested it was space debris, such as a defunct satellite reentering Earth's atmosphere. The latter was closer to the truth, as outlined by Jonathan McDowell, a renowned astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who took to Twitter with an in-depth explanation that points to space junk that was jettisoned from the International Space Station (ISS).